Sexual Addiction and Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR): An Introduction

“Sexual addiction is strongly anchored in shame and trauma. Research conducted over the past fifteen years has consistently shown the prevalence of emotional, physical and sexual abuse in this population” (Cox & Howard, 2007, p. 1). As well, there is also high co-morbidity of sexual addiction with other addictive disorders. An additional layer of sexual addiction is the underlying shame associated with the actions and behaviors the client engages in for this addiction. This intense shame is likely to fuel and perpetuate the cycle of the addiction. With such a strong link, it is important for clinicians to address the underlying trauma while assisting clients with sexual addiction (Cox & Howard, 2007).